Containment Barrier

ABSTRACT

A containment barrier is provided in a plurality of compartments, such as linearly arranged, with a supply of super absorbent polymer in each of the compartments. In a wetted configuration, the barrier can prevent the flow of fluid into a drainage, or even past a garage door. Compartments may be defined in an inner bag contained within an outer covering.

CLAIM OF PRIORITY

This application claims the benefit of U.S. Provisional Patent Application No. 61/174,518 filed May 1, 2009.

FIELD OF THE INVENTION

The present invention relates to a containment barrier, and more preferably to a barrier adapted to be stored in a dry configuration, wetted for use, and then, preferably allowed to desorb to be re-stored in the dry configuration.

DESCRIPTION OF RELATED ART

Sorb Sox™ sold at www.andax.com are a competitive product which has a compressive bandage type exterior containing textile products which absorb fluid to become a barrier, such as at a culvert, or drainage area proximate to a curb in a street. The product effectively forms a four, eight or twelve foot long 3″ diameter sausage which can be placed in an anticipated path of a spill.

Sorb Sox™, once wet, must then often be treated as contaminated waste and placed in appropriately marked containers and sent to expensive bibbed landfills.

An improvement of this prior art technology is believed to be necessary.

SUMMARY OF THE INVENTION

It is a present object of the present invention to provide an improved containment barrier.

It is another object of the present invention to a containment barrier which has a dry storage configuration and is capable of desorption in a timely manner for re-storage in the storage configuration.

It is another object of the present invention to provide a containment barrier having a plurality of compartments which may cooperate with a curb or other structure to divert fluid, at least temporarily, from entering the drains/culverts or other point of concern.

In a presently preferred embodiment of the present invention, a first fabric may be formed, preferably into a plurality of compartments by folding the fabric and then defining the compartments by sewing at desired locations. A second fabric may then encapsulate the first fabric with similar structural compartmentation once an appropriate desired amount of SAP is placed in the desired compartments. The first fabric is preferably a 100% cotton woven twill. The second fabric is preferably at least one of burlap and jute. Handles may be placed on the outer bag, for the ease of transportation.

The containment barrier, once built, is preferably activated by pouring water onto or into it, and allowing it to take shape, preferably before being installed. The barrier can prevent, or at least retard contaminants from entering a culvert or other location of interest.

BRIEF DESCRIPTION OF THE DRAWINGS

The particular features and advantages of the invention as well as other objects will become apparent from the following description taken in connection with the accompanying drawings in which:

FIG. 1 is a front plan view of inner fabric prior to being folded as shown in FIG. 2 into an at least partially compartmentalized configuration;

FIG. 2 is a top perspective view showing the folding of the inner fabric;

FIG. 3 is a top perspective view of the fabric shown in FIGS. 1-3;

FIG. 4 is front plan view showing the compartmentalized nature of the inner bag prior to installation in an outer bag;

FIG. 5 is a front plan view of an outer fabric prior to being sewn into compartmentalized sections about the inner bag;

FIG. 6 is top perspective view showing the folding of the outer fabric;

FIG. 7 is a front plan view showing the compartmentalized nature of the outer bag with handles installed;

FIG. 8 shows a top plan view of a drainage culvert of a presently preferred embodiment of the present invention prior to installing the containment device of the presently preferred embodiment of the present invention as shown constructed in FIG. 7; and

FIG. 9 shows a top plan view of the drainage culvert of FIG. 8 with the presently preferred embodiment of the present invention shown in FIG. 7 installed.

DETAILED DESCRIPTION OF THE PREFERRED EMBODIMENT

In accordance with a presently preferred embodiment of the present invention, FIGS. 1-7 show construction of a containment barrier 10. Barrier 10 may be constructed as shown and described herein.

Inner bag 12 may be formed as shown in FIG. 4 by starting with fabric 14 shown in FIG. 1. A 100×14 inch portion of fabric 14 may preferably be folded along fold 16 to provide folded fabric 18 as shown in FIG. 2. At specified intervals, seams A,B,C,D,E,F which may be provided perpendicularly or otherwise relative to fold 16. Seams A,B,C,D,E,F may assist in defining chambers or compartments 20,22,24,26,28.

Tape 30 may be used over or along seams A,B,C,D,E,F as well as along edge 32 to assist in providing compartments 20,22,24,26,28. In fact ¼ inch topstitched tape is utilized in the illustrated embodiment. Edges 32 and possibly 33 may be sewn together after a super absorbent polymer (SAP) is added to the openings 34,36,38,40,42. In a preferred embodiment, about 24 grams or 26 milliliters of SAP with an absorption ratio of about 1/500 is added to compartment 20 and 28. About 30 grams or 109 milliliters may be added to compartments 22,24,26. A molecular weight greater than one for the SAP is helpful to keep the barrier from floating. Other amounts, and other numbers of compartments and sizes could be utilized with other embodiments. After finishing the inner bag 12, it may have a finished dimensions of about 6½×99½ inches.

It is then time to preferably add outer casing 44 over inner bag 12. First outer material 46 may be folded along fold 48. The dimensions may preferably be slightly greater than that of inner bag material 14. 17×101 has been found effective. When folded, particularly with a ¾ inch foldback, the inner bag fits particularly well inside the casing 44. Twill tape may then be utilized along seams 50, 52,54,56,58, 60 perpendicular to fold 48. Twill tape may also be utilized along edge 62. Loop handles 64,66,68,70,72,74 may be formed while employing the tape 76 and in at least one preferred embodiment, handles 66,68,70,72 are connected to the outer casing 44 and not sewn through inner bag 12 while handles 64,74 are sewn through both inner bag 12 and outer casing 44. Other embodiments may have different constructions.

Nine to ten stitches per inch, or more or less, may be employed. The thread may be 100% polyester TXT 70 or other appropriate thread. The fabric of the outer casing 46 may be burlap or jute, such as 9 oz. fabric. The inner bag may preferably be China twill, such as 108×56 with 32 mesh weave made of 100% cotton. Stitches for the inner bag may be 100% polyester TXT 70 or other material. 9-10 stitches or more or less may be employed. Other fabrics and stitching may be utilized with other embodiments. Twisting of the inner bag 12 within the outer casing 44 may be avoided.

Once constructed, the containment barriers 10 have an air permeability greater than or equal to 28 and are preferably stored dry in a storage configuration until ready to be deployed. Barriers 10 are then wetted such as with water from a truck tank and allowed to absorb the water. They are then placed in position relative to a curb and draining such as curb 78 and drainage 80 whereby they form a barrier with the curb 78 preventing flow of fluid into the drainage 80.

Instead as water rises (presumably contaminated water) it is directed around the drainage 80 to elsewhere. As an improvement over prior art constructions, once the barrier 10 has been utilized, it can be re-used relatively easily. By having handles, the handles 64,66,68,70,72,74 can be pulled under a garage door to assist in preventing flooding under a garage door. Contamination will be limited to exterior surfaces 82 of the barrier 10. Exterior surfaces 82 may be rinsed off as the contamination should not become entrapped in the SAP since the SAP can be “pre-loaded” with water prior to installation.

After rinsing off the contamination, the barriers may desorb the water over a period of days, such as about 10-14 days of 60% or less humidity. The dry barriers 10 can then be re-stored and ready for re-use at a later date. This cannot happen with prior art Sorb Sox™ as the contamination cannot be as easily removed. They are typically placed in appropriate containers and sent to special bibbed landfills at a large cost. Instead, the applicant's product can be re-used. Once exhausted, or if the user desires to exhaust the SAP, a high pH solution can be employed to break down remaining bonds in the SAP for termination of the life of the barrier 10.

Compartments such as compartments 22,24,26 have larger volume/mass of SAP ratio than compartments 20,28. Compartments 20,28 help hold the barrier 10 against the curb 78 when installed. Less ballooned compartments 22,24,26 can help in some embodiments to seal against the surface of the road to prevent leakage into drainage 80.

Due to the dry storage nature of the applicants' barrier 10 which are particularly compact and light until wetted, significant advantages can be experienced over the prior art Sorb Sox even during deployment, over and above the retrieval issues described above.

Numerous alterations of the structure herein disclosed will suggest themselves to those skilled in the art. However, it is to be understood that the present disclosure relates to the preferred embodiment of the invention which is for purposes of illustration only and not to be construed as a limitation of the invention. All such modifications which do not depart from the spirit of the invention are intended to be included within the scope of the appended claims.

Having thus set forth the nature of the invention, what is claimed herein is: 

1. A containment barrier comprising: a plurality of compartments integrally connected together each having a supply of super absorbent polymer therein; wherein said containment barrier has a dry configuration in which the super absorbent polymer is not retaining a supply of fluid, and a wetted configuration in which the super absorbent polymer is retaining fluid; and wherein said plurality of compartments are positionable relative to adjacent compartments in both the dry and wetted configurations.
 2. The containment barrier of claim 1 wherein the plurality of compartments further comprises at least three compartments.
 3. The containment barrier of claim 2 wherein the at least three compartments are similarly sized.
 4. The containment barrier of claim 3 wherein the three compartments are disposed in a linear arrangement.
 5. The containment barrier of claim 4 wherein the plurality of compartments further comprise an additional two compartments linearly disposed on opposite sides of the linearly disposed three compartments.
 6. The containment barrier of claim 5 wherein the two compartments are a different size than the three compartments.
 7. The containment barrier of claim 1 having a length at least about five time greater than a width.
 8. The containment barrier of claim 1 wherein the super absorbent polymer has an absorbency capacity of at least about 1/500 and a molecular weight of at least one.
 9. The containment barrier of claim 1 further comprising an inner bag with the super absorbent polymer therein, and an outer casing about the inner bag with at least the inner bag divided into the compartments.
 10. A containment barrier comprising: a plurality of compartments connected together each having a supply of super absorbent polymer therein; wherein said containment barrier has a dry configuration in which the super absorbent polymer is not retaining a supply of fluid, and a wetted configuration in which the super absorbent polymer is retaining fluid; and wherein said plurality of compartments are linearly oriented relative to one another defining a length in an extended configuration.
 11. The containment barrier of claim 10 wherein the length is at least three times greater than a width.
 12. The containment barrier of claim 11 wherein the length is at least about five times greater than the width.
 13. The containment barrier of claim 12 wherein the length is at least about ten times greater than the width.
 14. The containment barrier of claim 10 wherein the compartments are positionable relative to connected adjacent compartments in the dry and wetted configurations.
 15. The containment barrier of claim 10 further comprising an inner bag with the super absorbent polymer therein, and an outer casing about the inner bag with at least the inner bag divided into the compartments.
 16. The containment barrier of claim 10 wherein the plurality of compartments further comprises at least three compartments.
 17. The containment barrier of claim 16 wherein the three compartments are placed in the wetted configuration and then utilized to obstruct flow into a drainage comprising the steps of: placing the barrier about a drainage with the three components forming sides in combination with a curb, thereby restricting flow of fluid from outside the drainage into the drainage as obstructed by the barrier when in the wetted configuration.
 18. The containment barrier of claim 17 wherein the plurality of compartments further comprises another two compartments, said additional two compartments extending parallel to the curb against the curb when the barrier is placed about the drainage.
 19. The containment barrier of claim 10 further comprising handles extending perpendicular to the length of the barrier.
 20. The containment barrier of claim 19 used to stop flooding past a garage door comprising the steps of: placing the handles under a garage door; shutting the garage door; and placing the containment barrier in the wetted configuration. 